I am really liking Tzipi Livni, at least so far. So, apparently, is George W. Bush.
WASHINGTON – Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was in for a surprise during her meeting with National Security Advisor Steve Hadley at the White House Thursday, when U.S. President George W. Bush suddenly entered the room.
[…] Bush and Livni’s meeting lasted about half an hour and was defined by an Israeli source as “excellent.” The two discussed Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian Authority elections and the Iranian nuclear issue.
During the meeting, Livni repeated Israel’s stance that a united front must be formed against Hamas and that the group must be demanded to recognize Israel and the international agreements, as well as disarm its gunmen.
I am, however, taking a wait-and-see attitude on this. Oh, Bush and Condi are talking the talk:
Livni said the same things in her meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She told her counterpart that a Hamas-led Palestinian government could be designated a terrorist state, subject to sanctions, if it does not renounce terrorism and recognize Israel.
“When an entity, a state, is being led by terrorists, the meaning is that this entity, this authority, this state, is going to transfer into a terror state,” Livni said, adding that Israel would not be able to negotiate with such an authority.
Rice, meanwhile, said the optimal solution would be recognition of Israel by any Palestinian government. Israel is a member of the United Nations, Rice said, and stressed Hamas must recognize the Jewish state and renounce terror.
But I’m waiting to see if they walk the walk.
Meryl wrote:
But I’m waiting to see if they walk the walk.
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…and many in Israel are more dubious about Olmert staying the course than we are about W and Condi.
Olmert has proven himself to be a weasely demagogue, and he and his family are heavily involved in the radical Israeli left (his wife co-founded the Women in Black organization).
Last week – with the whole world looking at him for a clue as to how firm Israel would be about Hamastan – he showed an ass-from-elbow aptitude for identifying Israel’s real enemies, releasing millions of dollars to the Palis while shopping around for a bloody anti-settler photo-op to help him fill the “tough guy” void left by Sharon.
Condi’s blood has more testosterone than this man’s.
The one point of hope is that, with Sharon off the public stage, Israelis are waking up to just how far we’ve slid towards becoming a banana republic. And if those missiles keep falling on Ashkelon, no amount of demonizing the settlers will help Kadimah or the left.
Lovely.
This whole “we’ll only recognize HAMAS if they say some magic words” schtick makes me want to puke. It is panic. It signals weakness, and the Arabs can see right through it.
Neither the Olmert government nor the Bush Administration has the stomach to declare an end to the “peace process,” so they are literally begging HAMAS to lend a hand and allow the U.S. and Israel to save face.
The alternative would have been for the U.S. to state that approval of a HAMAS-led government by Abbas would contravene the Oslo accords and President Bush’s speech of June 2002, and result in a suspension of the Roadmap. Abbas has the constitutional authority to reject a HAMAS government and call new elections. But it appears that the U.S. lacks the strength to take this position.
With this weakness now exposed, HAMAS can now proceed from a position of strength.